Maythe Force Be With You
Original generated catalogue card for Ponda Baba

Catalogue entryAqualishAge of Rebellion

Ponda Baba

Picked a fight in the Mos Eisley cantina and lost an arm inside four seconds.

Species
Aqualish
Homeworld
Ando
Affiliation
Hutt crime syndicate — spice smuggling
First appearance
Star Wars (1977)
Continuity
Canon
Trade
Spice smuggling for Jabba the Hutt
Associate
Dr. Cornelius Evazan
Injury
Lost an arm to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber

Ponda Baba is an Aqualish thug who, per StarWars.com, "smuggled spice for Jabba the Hutt alongside his friend Dr. Cornelius Evazan, a murderous former surgeon Ponda had rescued from a bounty hunter". He is one of the aliens sheltering from Tatooine's twin suns in the Mos Eisley cantina when Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi walk in.

The scene that follows is the film's first demonstration of what a lightsaber does to a person, and the databank's phrasing is admirably dry: the quarrel ended with "Evazan dead and Ponda missing an arm", which it calls "rather decisively". He and Evazan reappear on Jedha in Rogue One (2016), a cameo that quietly establishes they were on their way to Tatooine.

Catalogue entry. This figure has a verified record here rather than a full write-up — the encyclopedia labels its own depth instead of padding it.